CRA has just released a chapter in their Income Tax Folio series for charities and non-profit organizations. The new part is S7-F1-C1, Split-receipting and Deemed Fair Market Value. Income Tax Folios are CRA’s official summary of its interpretation on certain income tax matters and this is the first chapter for Folio 1 Charitable Gifts and Deductions. The new folio relates to subsections 248(30) to (41) of the Income Tax Act (Canada), which contain the split-receipting rules and deemed fair market value rule.

Mark Blumberg recently presented a webinar for the Canadian Charity Law Association (CCLA) to discuss CRA’s consultation on political activities and the importance of Canadian charities conducting political activities. The deadline for submissions to CRA has been extended to December 14, 2016.

Employment and Social Development Canada is running the Canada’s Volunteer Awards program, to recognize the outstanding contributions of individual volunteers, not-for-profit organizations and businesses in Canada that are helping communities.

CRA recently announced that the mailing of a printed copy of the Form T2081, Excess Corporate Holdings Worksheet for Private Foundations will no longer be sent out to affected charities. However this form will be accesible to affected charities on the CRA website.

CRA recently announced that the deadline for online submissions for its political activities consultation has been extended to December 14th, 2016. The CRA is looking for feedback on the rules and CRA's guidance relating to political activities. You can email your submissions to CRA at consultation-policy-politique@cra-arc.gc.ca.

Corporations Canada recently implemented changes to a number of its forms on its website under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act ('CNCA'), the Canada Business Corporations Act, and the Special Act of Parliament.

Liberal MP Alexandra Mendès has put forward a Private Members' Motion on November 16, 2016 that requests that the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities will study the non-profit and charity sector.

Recently we noticed that CRA is now including a T3010 reminder notice in the Notification of Registration letters being issued to new Canadian registered charities. The reminder notice relates to the due date of the charity's annual information return with CRA.

CRA recently released its first video as part of a new educational video series on 'Gifting and Receipting'. This series is meant to educate the public, donors, and those involved in the charitable sector on the type of donations that are tax-receiptable and the different CRA rules regarding receipting.

This case involves an auto worker who invested in an abusive charity gifting tax scheme. When caught by CRA he went to another group called Fiscal Arbitrators and they suggested he claim a large amount of business losses even though he does not run a business. What an amazing case! I guess we can learn don't "invest" in abusive charity gifting tax schemes that promise tax saving greater than the cash you put in. Also don't claim false business losses. The case also states some obvious points like you should read your return before filing and penalties can be imposed on you if you are grossly negligent.

We had previously covered the V. Ross Morrison v. The Queen case dealing with the Canadian Humanitarian Trust and the Canadian Gift Initiatives donation programs. The appellants appealed the earlier decision of Justice F.J. Pizzitelli of the Tax Court of Canada and that appeal was recently dismissed by the Federal Court of Appeal.

As many know the CRA has launched a consultation on political activities by Canadian charities. The Canadian Charity Law Association will be having Mark Blumberg present a webinar on the consultation and various ways of responding or not responding to it. The webinar will be on Tuesday, November 15, 2016 at 12:00PM EST. You can register here for the webinar. It is free but there is limited space.

The UK Charity Commission has published a report regarding its inquiry into a registered charity (the Bristol Community Church Trust). The inquiry started in 2011 and related to sexual abuse allegations that were made against the charity's youth pastor and the inadequacy of the charity's internal safeguarding practices with respect to their response to these allegations.

There is a new article in the New York Times entitled "They Took In One Refugee Family. But Families Don’t Have Borders." It is a followup to an earlier article on the experience of 3 Syrian families who had come to Canada recently as refugees which we covered here. The most recent report by Jodi Kantor and Catrin Einhorn discusses the difficulty that Syrian refugees and their sponsors face in a world of instant technology when the refugees are in Canada but their families are left behind.

CRA has released a letter which discusses whether improvement districts, particularly in British Columbia, would be considered municipal or public bodies performing a function of government for the purpose of paragraph 149(1)(c) and therefore able to issue donation receipts as a qualified donee. CRA determined that improvement districts could qualify as a municipal or public body performing a function of government because they have a governance function, and exercise powers similar to those of municipalities (whether providing one or several services to the public). Here is a copy of the full CRA letter.